De-interlacing capability is a common feature of today's televisions, Digital Video Disc (DVD) players and set-top boxes (STBs). Video format conversion such as converting standard definition (SD) video content into high definition (HD) content requires de-interlacing of the interlaced content. In addition, de-interlacing functionality is needed to convert interlaced video content into a form suitable for modern progressive scan displays.
De-interlacing techniques can be classified as intra-field, inter-field, motion adaptive or motion compensation. Intra-field de-interlacing is the process of interpolating missing pixel values from an existing field of interlaced video pixel values to generate a full frame image. Intra-field de-interlacing is an attractive technique because it maximizes de-interlacing speed while minimizing computational complexity. However, conventional intra-field de-interlacing techniques may cause visible artifacts when de-interlacing video content that includes shallow angle edges.